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Kohler New design ideas

Here, the toilets might come equipped with remote controls. A bathtub promises to gently vibrate away your cares. A showerhead simultaneously washes you and serenades you with your favorite jazz podcast. The water to fill a bathtub could pour forth from the ceiling.

It’s all in keeping with consumers’ consuming passions for their homes. The kitchen-and-bath business — in the higher price ranges, at least — has fed these passions by creating something of a show-biz aura around its products; Kohler Co. didn’t hit $5 billion in annual sales by ignoring it. Although the company certainly isn’t the only one in its field to develop a glitzy showroom, it’s probably the only one to turn that showroom into a tourist destination: About 130,000 people a year visit the Design Center in the little town of Kohler (population: 2,100), about an hour north of Milwaukee, Wis.

Of course, it helps that Kohler adapted a century-old workers’ dormitory down the street from the design center and turned it into the Tudor-styled American Club, which is now a five-star resort. (Kohler also runs four championship Pete Dye-designed courses nearby.) The decidedly upscale hotel manages to pack its guest rooms’ baths with sybaritic razzle-dazzle that’s a de facto invitation to drop by the design center to feast on more.

Just don’t plan to buy any of the company goodies for your kitchen or bath there.

“You can’t buy anything from the Design Center,” explained company spokeswoman Mirjam Lippuner Konsek. “We will refer customers to their local distributor (during their visit), but a client could walk out of the design center with a full list of Kohler products and specifications for their building project.”

The center is staffed with designers who will review your home’s floor plans and design needs and help sort out the myriad products, preferably by appointment. Visitors are also welcome to make an impromptu visit to wander the design center on their own, with designers and staff on hand to answer questions.

Design-wise, the place is divided into two principal areas: The main level is in the vein of a traditional showroom — a wall-to-wall (and then some) array of related products it manufactures among its numerous brands. (In addition to Kohler-branded products, the company also produces Ann Sacks tile, Robern bathroom cabinetry, Kallista faucets and fixtures, Sterling bath products and a dozen other lines.)

Then, on the mezzanine level are a couple dozen kitchen and bath “room vignettes” created by leading designers from around the country. (There’s also a small museum on the lower level that’s devoted to the company’s 140-year history and visitors also can arrange free tours of the company’s manufacturing facilities elsewhere in the town.)

The vignettes spotlight Kohler products, of course, and range from the most traditional styling to the most contemporary — even avant-garde — looks. The rooms aren’t meant to dictate what’s hot or to prescribe how a given room should look, according to Travis Rotelli, senior interior designer at Kohler. Rather, they’re a conversation-starter, he said.

“It’s more about trying to show the consumer the different ways you can design,” he said. “It’s meant to open your mind to what you can do.”

Nonetheless, a “gotta find what’s hot” mindset pervades many consumers’ design decisions these days. Among the trend highlights that Rotelli has spotted, based on conversations with designers and consumers who have recently wandered, wide-eyed, through the center:

The Bathroom is Connected

“We conducted a survey, and 75 percent of the people told us they use their smart phones in their bathrooms,” Rotelli said. “One of the biggest trends we are seeing in bathrooms and kitchens has been focused on technology.”

The company was aware that audio-craving consumers long have been dragging their radios into their bathrooms or precariously balancing their iPod docking stations on their toilet tanks.

“We decided to make (bringing music into the bathroom) easier, as well as put a beautiful design aesthetic about it,” he said.

The result: the company’s new Moxie showerhead, which is an integrated Bluetooth speaker that resides within the center of the showerhead itself. Turn on the

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What’s New in Kitchen and Bath Trends: A Visit to the Kohler Design Center

By Mary Umberger

At the Kohler Design Center, small rooms, or vignettes, showcase how to incorporate the design trends and products that you see into your own home. This vignette, called Crystal Clear, was designed by Chicago designer Mick DeGiulio and uses Kohler products to create a multi-tasking kitchen counter in a small space.

KOHLER, WIS. — It’s the Disneyland of kitchens and bathrooms.

Seriously, for anyone who has actually reveled in the falling-face-first feeling of choosing the myriad products and finishes for a new kitchen or bath, the 36,000 sq. ft. Kohler Design Center is a veritable playground of spas and sinks and tile.

Here, the toilets might come equipped with remote controls. A bathtub promises to gently vibrate away your cares. A showerhead simultaneously washes you and serenades you with your favorite jazz podcast. The water to fill a bathtub could pour forth from the ceiling.

It’s all in keeping with consumers’ consuming passions for their homes. The kitchen-and-bath business — in the higher price ranges, at least — has fed these passions by creating something of a show-biz aura around its products; Kohler Co. didn’t hit $5 billion in annual sales by ignoring it. Although the company certainly isn’t the only one in its field to develop a glitzy showroom, it’s probably the only one to turn that showroom into a tourist destination: About 130,000 people a year visit the Design Center in the little town of Kohler (population: 2,100), about an hour north of Milwaukee, Wis.

Of course, it helps that Kohler adapted a century-old workers’ dormitory down the street from the design center and turned it into the Tudor-styled American Club, which is now a five-star resort. (Kohler also runs four championship Pete Dye-designed courses nearby.) The decidedly upscale hotel manages to pack its guest rooms’ baths with sybaritic razzle-dazzle that’s a de facto invitation to drop by the design center to feast on more.

Just don’t plan to buy any of the company goodies for your kitchen or bath there.

“You can’t buy anything from the Design Center,” explained company spokeswoman Mirjam Lippuner Konsek. “We will refer customers to their local distributor (during their visit), but a client could walk out of the design center with a full list of Kohler products and specifications for their building project.”

The center is staffed with designers who will review your home’s floor plans and design needs and help sort out the myriad products, preferably by appointment. Visitors are also welcome to make an impromptu visit to wander the design center on their own, with designers and staff on hand to answer questions.

Design-wise, the place is divided into two principal areas: The main level is in the vein of a traditional showroom — a wall-to-wall (and then some) array of related products it manufactures among its numerous brands. (In addition to Kohler-branded products, the company also produces Ann Sacks tile, Robern bathroom cabinetry, Kallista faucets and fixtures, Sterling bath products and a dozen other lines.)

Then, on the mezzanine level are a couple dozen kitchen and bath “room vignettes” created by leading designers from around the country. (There’s also a small museum on the lower level that’s devoted to the company’s 140-year history and visitors also can arrange free tours of the company’s manufacturing facilities elsewhere in the town.)

The vignettes spotlight Kohler products, of course, and range from the most traditional styling to the most contemporary — even avant-garde — looks. The rooms aren’t meant to dictate what’s hot or to prescribe how a given room should look, according to Travis Rotelli, senior interior designer at Kohler. Rather, they’re a conversation-starter, he said.

“It’s more about trying to show the consumer the different ways you can design,” he said. “It’s meant to open your mind to what you can do.”

Nonetheless, a “gotta find what’s hot” mindset pervades many consumers’ design decisions these days. Among the trend highlights that Rotelli has spotted, based on conversations with designers and consumers who have recently wandered, wide-eyed, through the center:

The Bathroom is Connected

“We conducted a survey, and 75 percent of the people told us they use their smart phones in their bathrooms,” Rotelli said. “One of the biggest trends we are seeing in bathrooms and kitchens has been focused on technology.”

The company was aware that audio-craving consumers long have been dragging their radios into their bathrooms or precariously balancing their iPod docking stations on their toilet tanks.

“We decided to make (bringing music into the bathroom) easier, as well as put a beautiful design aesthetic about it,” he said.

The result: the company’s new Moxie showerhead, which is an integrated Bluetooth speaker that resides within the center of the showerhead itself. Turn on the